Oceantale
by ProbableSarcasm
Summary: Legend has it, all those who travel the sea's fog never return... and that the Bermuda Triangle holds very bad secrets. When the world was ravened by a giant rainstorm, humans and monsters built ships to hide out the storms. The humans believed the gods were furious with the monsters and waged war. The gods of Warfare and Maritime banished the monsters into a triangular ocean.
1. Far Away

**[*(This doesn't matter and is only here for a little explanation. They mean nothing.)]**

You're drifting...

Far beyond the safe waters of the islands lies a vast sea that is rumored to be cursed.

Legend says, those who sail when the Death Sea's fog is up, never return out of the fog.

You can taste the seawater stinging your tongue.

The smell of wet, rotten wood is surprisingly leading. The scent of saltwater lost it's appeal after two hours of dehydrated vomiting.

You clutch on, refusing to let go of your buoyant plank. Your lower half is submerged in the warm water, kicking weakly at the waves.

Crying for help is fruitless, you discovered that twelve hours before. If you're gonna die, you're gonna die on this plank.

You look up.

Nothing.

You look down.

The water looks beautiful and ominous, so inviting. You feel your fingers become more and more strained, one by one they relax.

Your arms slackens, your cheek slides against the board. You submerge into the water and sink, your determination wasn't enough for hours upon hours of heat and dehydration.

You sink.

And the tendrils of cold seeps through your soaked pants leg, and it crawls up your body and slowly wrapping around your neck.

You can feel your air leaving your lungs...

Your vision turn blurry as your eyes accumulate pressure, your body demands air.

All humans who dare travel the Death Sea's fog, never return.

Your body is forcefully swept and you are pulled downwards, gravity is no longer a thing.


	2. Determined Will to Survive

**[*(This doesn't matter and is only here for a little explanation. They mean nothing.)]**

The feeling of being dragged in the water is one of the most... peculiar feelings that is left in your body. Not use to the feeling of being touched, your body resists in a futile attempt against the sensation of what seemed to be a ropelike bind. Thorns dug into your wrist, but you barely feel them over the imminence of you drowning.

Suddenly, you're being pulled downwards.

You flip upside-down as gravity looses hold of you and you shoot towards what is seem to be the bottom of the sea, towards the blackness of the deep sea. The water pressure is almost too much for you to bear, your body feels like it's collapsing on itself. Blood trails from your nostrils and into a mist of saltwater.

You loose your basic knowledge of direction.

What is up?

What is down?

You can't answer, because you're on the brink of suffocating. If you allow the water into your lungs, you're done for. But the will inside of you burns in your throat, your determination to not die to a watery grave warms your body and gives you that few minutes of life.

The deep black abyss swallows you whole, and the binds that clenched your left arm disappears. Leaving you floating downwards to the bottom, if the blood doesn't attract any unsavory prey; you don't know what will kill you next.

You touch the ground, or is it the ground?

Could it be a rocky wall?

Gravity is not a thing for you to care about, as you realize it's time to move.

Your body doesn't move, arms stuck to your chest and legs tucked in. Your in a fetal position in the deep pit of the edge of the Bermuda Triangle.

That is, until a gust of strong waves brushes you right.

You float in what seems like forever, you refuse to open your eyes in the chance you spy death's jowls ready to feast on your face. You float downwards now, but what is down? You're confused, until you touch sand on your elbows.

Sand in the abyss?

Impossible, you mentally declare.

You choke, bubbles shoot out of your mouth as you struggle to recover.

You wish you had oxygen.

A bright red light illuminates in front of your face. You don't feel the water as you remain in the light. You open your eyes, reluctantly, to find a red heart floating in front of you. The water splits and strays away from the light, giving the light a spherical dome effect. Your head is in the light, but when you move your hand inside-it phases right through.

You take in a breath, and breathe in oxygen. The heart gave out oxygen, but what is this heart?

There's a time and place to learn more about this, but it's not now. Feeling renewed strength in your body, you snatch the heart and place it close to your mouth and nose as you swim furiously against the pressure.

The waves grow to be too powerful, it grew in might as you feverishly pumped.

You get an idea.

You swim under the waves.

Even with the light keeping away the dark water, you cannot see.

Your adrenaline dies off, exhaustion overcomes your body.

You passed out, a mix of dehydration and a oxygen-starved body needs recovery.


	3. Chapter 1: Your Best First Mate

The taste of gritty, salty sand is the first sensation to enter your mouth, the next was the pounding heat of the sun on your neck and head, and finally was the sputtering cough of expelling water from your lungs. You bring yourself to your knees as you sporadically wipe your tongue clean of the dirty sand.

You hear the sounds of water crashing, and you take a moment to feel the ground for broken shells and whatnot. You take this opportunity to dip your arms into the seawater to clean your shirt from sand and wipe your eyes.

Your eyes widen as you see the pearly white beach in front of you, after hours and hours of seeing nothing but blue green ocean water and seafoam, this was the equivalent of giving starving children three loafs of bread; hastily and hungrily, you scramble for the land. Your heart soars along with your breathing rate.

You waddle against the water, literally running from the ocean like it was a disease. You've never been so happy to see the sand, and that was your only concern. You were so concerned about getting out of the water, you didn't notice the seaweed strand.

You fall face first into mushy sand.

You stand back up and brush away the sand, maybe a minor set back.. but nonetheless you were ecstatic!

Until you hear rushing water behind you, you shoot around to find a dog-sized frog tip out of the water. You gush over the cute froglike creature, you didn't see many marine animals where you grew up in.

You pet the frog-creature without permission.

The frog-creature sprayed you like a hose from a firetruck. The force of the aqua sent you out of the water and headfirst into the beach's sand dazed. The frog-creature shouts in your direction in a language you don't understand but you presume as insults.

"Yeah, Watadpoles aren't really nice creatures, unlike their Froggit relatives," An enthusiastic voice calls out in front of you. "A lot of folks know not to touch the wildlife here. . . hmmm. . . I'm assuming you're new around here aren't-cha?"

You struggle to push your head up.

You manage to push your head up. A blue crab with eight legs hangs from your nose, pinching the bridge of your nose. It somehow doesn't hurt. The pinchers are more like nose plugs, interesting...

You look forwards and find a golden flower in a bottle of dirt... there's some fragments resembling wood and very old cloth. It might be a ship in a bottle, that's interesting... very interesting.

"Howdy!" The flower greeted, "I'm Flowey! Flowey the Flower!"

You rise to your knees, the sand feels hot against your exposed kneecaps. You curiously gaze at the flower, eyes sparkling in amazement. A flower, that can talk! You never seen that before in your life!

Then again, you don't see many things on Ebott Island.

"Gee! You really like to explore!" Flowey smiles, "I can see it in your eyes, and by golly, you're just like me! A wanderer!"

You nod, very much agreeing with the flower. You always wandered away from your orphanage home, give it a distaste for a confined space or dislike for your bunkmates, whatever reason you wanted to legitimize your need to sneak away to the ocean coasts.

You notice a dim red glow materilize in front of you.

"Oh golly!" Flowey's eyes widen, staring at your floating glowing heart. He was silently for a quick minute, his eyes look very... very... exhausted? You think he was thinking, something that you didn't know flowers could do. "Do you know anything about this?"

You shake your head.

"Do you know what Determination is?"

You nod your head and tell him its something like a feeling of willpower.

"Oh ho, you really are a..." Flowey hesitates for a second. "...newbie around here..."

Flowey looks down at his bottle captivity.

"I guess I should teach you some things, gee this is so exciting!" The flower chuckles weakly, but shivers with excitement. "I've been stuck in this bottle forever, and I can't escape from it... I've been trying for days."

You raise an eyebrow in sympathy, but his sudden tone shift slightly startled you. He went from a polite and eager flower to a somber and gritty... thing. You waited until Flowey corrected his mood.

"Ahem, sorry!" Flowey's petals seems to be sweating. "What I meant to say was, I'll teach you how this world works and you release me from this bottle, sounds like a deal?"

Seems reasonable.

"Great, now c'mon and pick me up!" Flowey hops closer to you, leaving circular prints in the hot sand. "First things first, you got a name?"

You told Flowey your name.

"Wow... that's a... interesting name!" Flowey replies, grinning friendly. "We're gonna be best friends forever! Hey, I bet when you get a ship and you become a Captain: I'll be your First Mate!"

You look at Flowey with a smile, the idea of being the Captain of a ship was always your dream. The ability to travel the world at a moments notice, the adventurous tales those old colonials tell about sailing the ocean blues and fighting off the dangers of the vast sea.

Although, it'll be too soon if you actually touch the ocean water after you're dead. Yeah, touching water doesn't seem appealing at all. That's why humans created ships, you guessed.

You pick up the bottle and await instructions from Flowey, who seems all too giddy about being freed from his bottle prison. You understand his pain, being trapped in one place for far too long tends to make you learn to resent it.

"Okay, here you are in the southern part of once a great civilization!" Flowey says, he uses his stems to turn his head all around. "It's been centuries since anyone's been on this island, it's been sorta deserted because of a drought and famine... The monster king and queen use to live here in the castle not too far from here!"

You take in this information, wondering where he's going with this.

"Ever since the drought, the majority of this island has been a sort-a... mix between a rain forest and a desert... there's no way to grow food with the forest or make civilization in the heat since the rainwater is saltwater" Flowey continued his speech, "... but legend has it: the monster queen resides in the center of the ruins! Maybe we can head there and solve your bodily problems!"

You realize just how dry and hot your mouth is.

"Mmm... gee... I can't even remember the path!" says Flowey alarmingly. "But maybe we can find it if we can locate a trail!"

You look around you, behind you is the ocean, in front of you is a … not so steep rocky cliff, and to both sides of you is an endless stretch of sand. You look to Flowey for help, and he looked up the cliff with a thinker's smile.

"Hmm... I remember that water eroded the coasts line flat," Flowey says, looking at the cliff. "Climb up that and we should be on our way to mainland!"

You look nervous.

"Hey now, don't worry," Flowey says, smiling at you. "Here, I'll help!"

Flowey breathes in heavily, growing stiff before straightening his stems. To your left appeared a spinning star with bluish particles radiating off of it. You mesmerize it for a big second before Flowey pipes up.

"That right there... is a save point," Flowey says, panting. "It'll take away any physical pain and give you Determination... well that's for humans anyways... it just helps give me strength... go ahead try it..."

…

"Just touch it."

You reach your hand and touched the star, a warm glow shot across your chest. You look up to the cliff, and the feeling of overcoming any obstacle no matter how high... it fills you with Determination.

You have an idea.

"Hey... the cliff is back there..." Flowey reminds you nervously as you walk towards the ocean once more, you waddle through the water and waves and retraced your steps to the seaweed bundle. You shoot your hand into the water and give the seaweed a tug out of the water and it comes right out of the sand.

"Hey... captin'… what are you planning...?" You run back to shore and approach the cliff. After rubbing the seaweed in sand, you tied each strand of the less slimy plants into knots... making a long makeshift rope. You tie one end to Flowey's bottle and the other end to your wrist.

"H-hey! Don't leave me here!" Flowey cries out when you place him down, you hold up a finger to Flowey and tell him it's part of a plan. You turn back to the cliff and grab hold of a sturdy rock.

You grab hold of the rocks and pull yourself up, finding cracks in the rocks to climb up. Flowey looks at the seaweed and makes a noise of acknowledgment, he completely understands now you think.

It strains your fingers, but you manage to scale the cliff. You have no trouble finding places to place your hand and feet, but you're finding trouble in keep your strength... you're inexperience in rock climbing. Tree-climbing is completely different, because there were vines. MT. Ebott only had one cliff and that was a volcano wall.

The thought of falling into a volcano doesn't appeal.

You wished for strength, and your glowing heart shines brighter. You're motivated to get moving, adrenaline pumps through your veins as you force yourself to scale the cliff. Very soon, you feel mildew on the grass gloss your fingers.

You shoot your foot upwards onto the wall and you kick yourself up, getting your upper body onto the land. You quickly grip on the grass as you ease your knees onto the grass too. You roll onto your back, five inches away from the cliff. You smile drolly, feeling accomplished.

You get back up. Carefully, you pulled the seaweed upwards until you find the worry on the white face of your new friend. Flowey is eager to get as far away from the cliff as possible.

"Golly! You sure are smart!" Flowey congratulates, you untie the seaweed from him and wrap the rest of the seaweed up your arm. You realize the condition of your prussian blue blouse and warm black trousers are very bad, torn and ripped, the entire left sleeve of your blouse is ripped off. Your shoes are even worse. Maybe a dip in the aybyss wasn't the best idea.

You pick up Flowey.

"Hmm... it's coming back to me now... Go forward into the forest and you should find a collapsed pillar!" Flowey says, eagerly waving his leaves along with the coast breeze. "Let's go Captain!"

You move forward, appreciative of the shade the trees provide. You notice the coast breeze moves the humidity away from the air, it's much cooler in this rainforest than you remember learning about.

"Gee, how did you learn to do that?" Flowey asks, you shrug. You never really had planned it, and you're asking yourself that same question. You hold Flowey's bottle as you press on into the lucious forest.

"Mmm... okay... into the tall grass!" You give Flowey a weird look, alarmingly you know the dangers of tall grass. "C'mon, I know it's safe! Don't you trust me?"

You nod and enter the grass.

"Now... go left."

You did.

"See that tree with moss? Go in the direction the moss is facing!"

You did so, which is right.

You come across a fallen pillar, there were some words that are scratched out. You look towards Flowey, awaiting further instructions. The flower is facing down, his back to you. He's chuckling, darkly. You call out his name softly before he cackles, the glass bottle explodes in your hands and you flinch away hastily.

"Ahh..." Flowey says as he digs his roots into the ground. "Sorry... you have no idea how long I was in that bottle! Good gravy can confinement drive you crazy!"

He freed himself.

"Golly!" Flowey says, grinning. "I have promise to keep, don't I Captain?"

You nod, still shaking from the surprise glass attack.

"Well, see that heart?" Flowey asks, you nod. "That's your SOUL, the very culmination of your being!"

"Your SOUL starts off weak, but it can grow strong if you collect lots of LV!" Flowey continues.

You ask him what does LV stand for.

"Why LOVE of course!" Flowey winks, "You want some LOVE don't you?"

You nod, the opportunity to make your SOUL stronger is an opportunity that you can't just pass up!

"Well, LOVE is spread through little white..." Flowey pauses, "Friendliness pellets!"

"Follow me, I'll take you to The Ruins and then I'll give you some LOVE!" Flowey says with vigor... different than the voice you heard in the bottle. You look at the soil, it's practically pitch black... rich with nutrients... rich with everything a plant needs to survive. Flowey digs into the ground and a bulge in the ground went off in a direction.

You follow it, you were a little scared by the sudden demeanor but if Flowey was really untrustworthy he would have attacked you now and then.

…

It's been a few minutes of walking, you feel like he's going in circles.

…

He must be doing this on purpose, you conclude...

Wait...

It smells like bacon.

You're stopped by a orange boar with blue tusks, charging you from the right. You're hit by the tusks, but the tusks simply faze through you. The boar itself did hit you and you were sent flying into a tree. You hit the tree roughly, dazed.

The boar's hoof scrapes against the ground as it waits for you to move. You sputter the bark out of your mouth and stand back up, leaping away from the tree.

Holding out your hands to try and pacify it. The boar isn't impressed and attempts to charge you again.

You phase right through the tusks, but the boar hits you again with a head butt. You're sent into the ground, getting the wind knocked out of you. You prompt yourself up to your elbows and scramble backwards, ready to flee before you see friendliness pellets surround the boar.

Now this will definitely pacify the wild boar!

The friendliness pellets dart in the boar's direction, the boar squeals in... panic? The pellets hit the boat... and the impact of the twelve pellets sounded like... twelve flintlock pistol shots simultaneously... The boar cries out before dissolving into dust.

Vaporized.

Flowey appears in front of the dust and scowls, "That'll teach you to mess with what's min..."

Flowey turns to you, raising a mocking eyebrow.

"What?"

You confront him about his lying, and the slaughter of the boar. All Flowey does is cackle, guffawing as if you just told him the best joke ever. Flowey grins... no... he smirks at you with his façade falling from his face.

"What? It's a monster eat monster world, you should know this Chara." Flowey says, his lower eyelids look a shade of purple. "Now come on, you're gonna die unless you get to her."

You refuse.

"...Interesting," Flowey says with a grin, blinking at you. "You know what's going on here, don't you?"

A bullet strikes your soul, you convulse as pain rattled throughout your body so deep, you can feel the shaking of your skull in it's scalp.

"Hee hee hee..." Flowey chuckles, "Yarr... you know what's happening now, you scurvy ridden idiot."

You stare at Flowey, disbelief that he would betray you still wracking your brain.

"In this world, it's plunder or be plundered!" Flowey hisses with venom, his left eye seemed to be fake as it falls out of his face. His left eye socket is black, perhaps just like his heart. "Why would any pirate worth their two arms give up the opportunity for a human soul?!"

Your hands and feet grow cold.

"Die," Flowey hackles with a high pitch laugh as the bullets spin around you and comes closer.

And closer it did come.

You wish for help.


	4. Chapter 2: Pacifista De Arma

You wished for help, your body weak from the sucker punch bullet that hit you. The concept of being betrayed is new to you, you aren't exactly expecting a monstrous Flowey assaulting you for little to no reason. The cold reality sinks in as you come to terms with the fact that he played you for a fool.

You fell for it, under the guise of being friendly with you he actually wanted your soul... but why?

"Isn't it obvious why I want your soul?!" Flowey hackles, his laugh sent an icy feeling up your organs. You lock eyes with the flower, still refusing to believe that he would betray you. You're too stubborn and trusting of him, even when he's about to kill you... even though you know he tricked you. "Wow, you really are an idiot."

You demand he answers you.

"Nay, I have no reason to! You never had a save to begin with in the first place!" Flowey grins sadistically, but he allows a save point with orange particles to appear next to you. He condescendingly gaze at you. "Go on, touch it. Prove me wrong."

You touch the save point... your hand goes right through it. and he bursts out laughing. Hysterically laughing, he rumbles in the ground as he can't control his laughter. You notice you don't feel determined at all, nor did you even touch the star.

While he was laughing, he didn't notice a flicker of green light that shot across and smothered your SOUL. The light turned transparent, invisible.

"Hee hee hee," Flowey wipes chloroplast away from his eye. "You have to be the only moron to ever fall for that! Oh my gods, you really don't know anything about what I said! It's plunder or be plundered, matey! There's not a chance in W.D Gaster's locker that I can take this opportunity and waste it, the amount of power I can get from your SOUL is only the first part to my plan of becoming a god!"

His words rings throughout your head.

"Hee hee he... okay, for realzes this time, die." Flowey grins. The bullets inches closer every second passes, up until it touches your SOUL. The bullets are absorbed into the SOUL, and it ends your convulsive pain...

"What...?" Flowey looks stunned, so are you until a fireball strikes Flowey and uproots him. It sends the evil flower far away, probably off the cliff. You turn to the direction the fireball came from and your eyes gazed upon a figure leaving the bushes, her back to you. your savoir wears a brightly colored purple bodice and white petticoat without an overgown. Her bodice has deep tabs at the waist and virago sleeves.

"What a terrible creature," Your savior comments, "Torturing a poor child who can't defend themselves..."

She turns around.

There's a triangle shape on her belly up to her chest. You don't recognize the symbol, but you're eager to trust this figure. There's no way it can be human, you conclude, but it's better to get any form of help then nothing at all. The figure must be The Monster Queen, as Flowey previously mentioned.

"Ah, do not be afraid, my child." The Monster Queen softly greeted, her hands... paws... interlock each other in front of her. She's a goat, you concluded. You saw plenty of mountain goats in Mt. Ebott, the only difference was the horn size. Hers is very small compared to adult goats. "I always come down to the pillar to see if my snail farm is improving, it always seem to be a favorite spot for humans to drink the water..."

Your eyes light up at the sound of water.

"The water is poisonous, however," Toriel executes the thought in your head. "It's a breeding ground for Froggits and Watadpoles, it irradiates the water with slime. It always made the humans sick."

Never mind, you thought.

"I am Toriel, care maiden of the Ruins." She gives a warming smile as she looks at you up and down, she seems to be determining your reason to be here without you even speaking. Like she was searching for any... evil in your SOUL. She loosens up her gaze, voice a little broader. "You, however, are the first human to have come to this island in a very long time!"

You silently wondered why you were the only human to visit in presumed ages?

"Come! I will lead you through the forest!" Toriel turned around and strolled back into the bushes. You wonder if you should follow her or not, she is literally the Queen of all monsters and history books really don't paint The King and Queen of Monsters in a very good light.

You have no choice, realistically. Even if she doesn't kill you, you'll die from dehydration. You figure the only reason you're alive now is your SOUL, or was it Determination? Either or, it's not going to prevent your body from shutting down. You quickly run after Toriel through the bushes, not wanting to be crow-food.

You run after the figure of Toriel until she stops in front of a colossal castle gate. The gate is closed, although there is a way to go through the rubble of what possibly was the greatest castle you never had the chance to see. On the right side of the gate are three rows of stone panels in a 3x3 on the ground with an extra on the bottom of the rows.

"The Ruins are filled with puzzles and traps, my child," explains Toriel, pointing towards the left side of the gate is a rusty iron lever with a dull gold knob. "Some of the traps are meant to keep unsavory figures out of the castle... or at least they were meant."

Toriel simply and gracefully steps on each of them in a peculiar pattern, starting in the middle left row, up one, right two, down one, left one, down two. The she goes to the lever, and pushes the level inside. The gate raises as she pushes the lever into the stone wall, you can only stare in amazement at the ingenuity of the gate.

Wait, were the panels even necessary?

You follow Toriel through the gate and the sight almost made you raise an eyebrow, a thin layer of dust covers the ground of the courtyard. You look at Toriel and she has a somber look in her eyes, quickly leading you out of the dusty gardens and entering a door on the other side of the room.

You notice this room had water inside, but it was more like a moat. The bridge was covered in spikes with a crusty green liquid on it, there's dust on it too. The spikes, in a pattern, flicks up and back down... actually... you decide it's random. This is a trap for those with basic brain functions...

The dust everywhere... this place really that old?

"This one's a little dangerous, and it's not a puzzle. It's a trap. For you, my child, we will go past it." Toriel stops you from advancing by taking your hand with her left. For the first time, you actually see her eyes. They look purplish-red. "My child, I will show you a little magic."

Toriel's left eye flickers orange, then her right eye flickers blue; Toriel's left hand engulfs in a plasma spiral of orange and blue and she flicks her wrist towards the spikes. They turned into orange spikes, and some of them blue.

You gush over her magic, it being the first you ever seen in y

The same shade of blue the boar's tusk was, the same orange the boar's skin was. Toriel catches you glossing over her magic. She smiles warmly, but paid no mind to it. "I see you recognize the blue attacks, however, when you approach the orange spikes, do not stop moving."

You nod at her instructions.

"Although, it is best to not be in the way of any attack," Toriel warns, "I will not sugarcoat it, there will be an instant in you life where simple words won't work and you must come to defend yourself. That's for later, however, let us pass this trap and move on."

Toriel, leading you through the spikes, would only stop for the blue spikes to decend into their sheathe before moving on. Toriel, throughout the entire time, had her gaze on your wellbeing. You meet her loving gaze and you smile, for the first time in your life; you have an adult who actually cares about your health.

As you leave the spiked bridge room, you let go of Toriel's hand and she does to too. You watch her walk past you into a corridor, you follow suit. Toriel disappears in a right turn, you go to turn the corner when you're confronted by a Froggit.

No...

That's a Watadpole, given the tail.

The same Watadpole that blew you out of the water earlier, the same one that you had petted without permission. You know this by the unpleasant look in it's eyes and the way it waddles towards you. You smile nervously as your SOUL flickers in front of you, ready to defend you.

You tried to apologize to the Watadpole.

The Watadpole has no idea what you said, but is infuriated by your awkward tone.

The Watadpole lunges at you.

Your SOUL and you duck under the Watadpole and ran through the opening.

The Watadpole looks surprised at your speed, but it still seems to want to kill you.

You decide to not retaliate, you place your hands in front of you in an attempt to pacify the Wadtadpole. In the corner of your eye, you see Toriel glaring daggers at the Watadpole with red irises. The Watadpole instantly knows what the glare means and shamefully waddles away.

"Perhaps we should take a break," Toriel suggests.

* * *

You feverishly wolf down the large cup of water, fresh water. The ice inside of the water, you couldn't believe you would miss something as trivial as water. But you down it without trouble. You can feel the dehydration disappear from your throat.

"Apologizes, the inhabitants of the island became feral soon after everyone else left to colonize the islands." Toriel explains, taking your hand and leading you into the next room. A dummy there stood, you aren't sure what creature it represents but it doesn't look menacing in the slightest bit. "Normally, I would have you practice talking to your opponent but in this day and age: Everyone is obsessed with dying for a cause, no matter how ridiculous."

Toriel leads you to the dummy and releases your hand, she takes a practice sword from the wall and appraches you again. "My child, I must warn you, everyone in this Posideon-Forsaken ocean has a mission. That mission is to be fulfilled or to meet the Grim Reaper. When you draw this sword, or any sword, for any reason, for any manner, do not sheathe it until you are absolutely sure you have ended the fight."

Toriel looks hesitant. "The Ruins is among the various islands that are invaded annually, pirates and privateers eager to look for the fabled Chest of Odysseys."

You ask Toriel what the Chest of Odysseys is.

"The Chest of Odysseys is not a treasure chest, my child, there's no gold inside. It's a key," Toriel explains, using the sword to strike a triangle in the wall. "The legend goes, when Odysseys and Nile banished all monster-kind into this triangular prison, there are three keys to shattering the barrier.

"The first key is the Spear of Atlantis, which is currently held by a ruthless Admiral of The Royal Navy: Great White Undyne," Toriel says dangerously, "The second key is seven human souls, all but one of them held by him... The final key is The Chest of Odyessey."

Toriel sighs.

"Truthfully, even I don't know what it looks like or know where to look," Toriel hands you the sword, you take the practice sword carefully. You never held a weapon before in your life, you weren't old enough to do so. You look up to Toriel, who was watching you carefully.

"I apologize for giving you such a inadequate weapon, but I cannot give you such a dangerous object until either you come of age or you prove you are competent enough to use it," Toriel says firmly, her plum colored iris turns brown for a quick second before going back to their original color. "There is many different styles of swordplay, but because of the timeframe today and to instill a 'Do no harm' mindset, I will teach you Pacifista De Armas."

You look back to the dummy and it's silluette has taken a physical form. You gaze over it, and it takes a fighting stance towards you with a rapier of shadows. Your SOUL flickers alive to defend you. Toriel, from behind you, moves your legs apart and puts you in a defensive stance, with your SOUL out of range but not your sword.

"Look alive, my child," Toriel instructs, "The swords can cut you, but the biggest hit a weapon can do is attack your SOUL."

The shadow thrusted it's rapier, you instinctually lowered your own sword to deflect it.

"You have experience with defensive measures, my child?" Toriel comments, you are amazed yourself on how you know how to use the sword. "The basic disarm is to attack your opponents hand, but since this rapier has a hand guard that would be futile. Scan your opponent, do you see anything out of the ordinary?"

You do, the dummy looks reluctant to fight.

"Do you see it, my child?" Toriel inquires, you nod your head. Toriel praises this perception with a smile. "I'm not even teaching you, perhaps you're a natural at this."

"Now, swordplay is not at all about swords," Toriel explains further, "It is like chess, you must one-up your opponent by predicting their movements, and if you can't, trap them in a position they cannot escape from."

As if by muscle memory, you step forward with a rushing slash to the left. The opponent already guessed your movement, but you did not go all the way with the attack. You feigned your attack, went behind your opponent, and placed your practice sword to the dummy's neck while at the same time wrenching the shadow's sword out of their wrist. The dummy is subdued.

"Oh my, I didn't have to teach you a thing!" Toriel claps, "Perhaps you have practiced Pacifista De Armas before! I thought it was only a art known by a small minority of humans, bravo!"

You remain silent, unsure where or how you got the ability to swordfight, even less know how to do THAT, with your first time picking up a weapon ever. You don't even know what Pacifista De Armas meant before today and you still don't.


End file.
